DOM CASMURRO AND DOM: CINEMA AND LITERATURE

Abstract

The objective of this research is to make a comparative analysis of the novel by Machado de Assis, Dom Casmurro (1900), and the movie by the Brazilian filmmaker, Moacyr Góes, Dom (2003). The analysis will highlight points of similarities and of differences between both the book and the movie, as well as the issue of a film adaptation of a literary work from the 19th Century and its rereading for a 21st Century audience, which presents a woman, Capitu\Ana, in a context of a free and emancipated woman of the present day. This work will discuss theories about adaptation and the elements present in the process of transformation of a literary work into a movie. This paper will have as theoretical support, the works of Bazin (1991); Brito (2006); Azeredo (2006), among others. A major point of Góes"™ reading of the Machadian text lies in the gender relations, mainly in women"™s achievements, something that helps triggering the conflict. Góes shows the 21st Century man unqualified to deal with the new social roles of both sexes in the context of matrimony.